This is the class blog for Eng 1102 at GA Tech called "Fiction, Human Rights, and Social Responsibility." The purpose of this blog is to extend our discussion beyond the classroom and to become aware of human rights issues that exist in the world today and how technology has played a role in either solving or aggravating them. Blogs will be a paragraph long (250 words) and students will contribute once every three weeks according to class number. Entries must be posted by Friday midnight.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Deprivation of Rights: History Should Not Be Repeated

I truly enjoyed this movie; I usually do not
watch war movies but this really captured my attention. Europa Europa perfectly
depicts how the lives of Jews were during the Hitler’s reign.

The movie starts with the scene of Solly being
circumcised just like any other Jewish boys. This circumcision put Solly in
frustration several times while he was pretending to be a Nazi to survive
because once the Nazis find out that Solly was circumcised, they would have killed
Solly just like the way they killed other Jews. Jewish people lost their right
to live along with the right to have own religious beliefs. During the
genocide, countless number of human rights were violated. On the Article 5 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states, “No one shall be subjected
to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

During the Holocaust, German government tried to
eliminate the whole Jewish population cruelly. Some people say that there were
some understandable reasons why Germans hated Jews but Holocaust is still
highly criticized because what Germans did to Jews were more than inhuman and
merciless acts.

Germans thought that the single answer to
everything about their lives was “Hitler” and viewed Hitler as God. Leni, the
girl that Solly liked, thought that her role in the country is to have pure
German baby and devote to Hitler. Leni even told Solly that she would cut the
throat of the Jew if she sees one. As demonstrated above, all the German
children were educated to hate Jews: they learned that they are superior and
that their hatred towards Jews is reasonable.

This was a really artistic piece and I especially
liked the background sound effects that constantly gave me some tension.
Germans disgust towards Jews was clearly expressed through both non-verbal and
verbal expressions: Germans atrociously hung or shot Jews and used harsh
language and referred them to vulgar names.I could relate this film really well because
during the early 1900s, during Japanese colonial era, Japanese tormented
Koreans and took away innumerous rights. Many Korean women were raped and any Koreans who
stood up for independence were captured with their right to trial taken away
and were often punished to death. Simply imagining about being in that
situation like Jews during Holocaust or Koreans during Japanese colonial era
gives me pain. Everybody in the world should have proper rights that can keep one
safe and happy. These sad histories should not be repeated and we all should
try to respect and promote the rights of us and those of other people.